Category Archives: political

Forgetting minor things (like people and maintenance)

Posted on June 21, 2011 by patrick

Müngstener Bridge over River Wupper is a beautiful old bridge built in 1894-1897. It has deteriorated because of deferred maintenance. The renovation will cost 30 million euros and only extend the bridge’s lifespan by 25 years. The bridge may have … Continue reading →

Posted in political, transportation | Leave a comment

Sri lanka and the Us.

Posted on May 18, 2011 by patrick

Tim Geithner talks about how the US is declining into the 3rd world.: Here are five facts that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner offered in a speech in New York Tuesday (May 17 2011) as “context for the [fiscal] choices we … Continue reading →

Posted in political, social commentary | Leave a comment

Party like it’s 1611 aka living credit card and (dollar) bill-free

Posted on February 3, 2011 by patrick

Late last year I found out from a friend that the U.S. Mint is making a strong effort to get the $1 Coin into circulation. For no shipping and handling fees, the U.S. Mint will send to consumers $1 Coins … Continue reading →

Posted in political, random silliness, rants | Leave a comment

Internet businesses should pay sales tax

Posted on January 30, 2011 by patrick

Update (15 April 2011) : O.k. boy did I miss the boat on this one. As as been pointed out in a series of comments on techcrunch ( I would post the link to the techcrunch post except with facebook … Continue reading →

Posted in political, rants, social commentary | 5 Comments

Open letter to Mountain View City Council about the HSR train station

Posted on September 12, 2010 by patrick

I urge these issues to be addressed about the HSR station: PARKING Because parking: is negative-revenue land usage ( costs to build/maintain/ generates no revenues or taxes ) is NOT required for high-ridership. Palo Alto and Mountain View both have … Continue reading →

Posted in high-speed-rail, political, transportation | Leave a comment

Pustulance, bile and falsehoods about online privacy from the WSJ

Posted on August 30, 2010 by patrick

The WSJ spewed forth this bit of online privacy pustulance from an alleged “professor of economics”, Paul Rubin Paul Rubin’s falsehoods: Paul Rubin’s First Falsehood 1) Privacy is free. Many privacy advocates believe it is a free lunch—that is, consumers … Continue reading →

Posted in political, privacy, rants | Leave a comment

Britian cancels runways because of global warming concerns

Posted on July 3, 2010 by patrick

Its time to give up “binge flying” says the Conservative government: “The emissions were a significant factor” in the decision to cancel the runway-building plans, Teresa Villiers, Britain’s minister of state for transport, said in an interview. “The 220,000 or … Continue reading →

Posted in high-speed-rail, political, transportation | Leave a comment

If you don’t vote, your opinion doesn’t matter. And sometimes you shouldn’t vote

Posted on June 24, 2010 by patrick

(This post is related to management I promise! ) Robert Cruickshank over at the California HSR Blog whines about Palo Alto’s “undemocratic” democratic process: In short, it is becoming increasingly clear that Palo Alto’s planning and citizen engagement process is … Continue reading →

Posted in how to, management, political | Leave a comment

Net Neutrality is good for small businesses

Posted on April 6, 2010 by patrick

Take Action The internet provider I use should ONLY provide the infrastructure to connect me with the Internet. As a business owner, I depend on skype / chat to conduct all my business dealings. My internet provider should not be … Continue reading →

Posted in political | Leave a comment

Facebook has bigger problems than “like” and “fans”

Posted on March 30, 2010 by patrick

Recently Facebook has been making a series of “privacy” changes in order to better convert peoples relationships into Facebook’s money. Dennis Yu of blitzlocal made some very valid points about Facebook’s latest effort. Facebook is revisiting “like” and “fan pages”: … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, political, rants | Leave a comment